Tuesday's HOT MIC

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Meet Lissette Pylant, the architect of a truly epic Twitter thread and a hero for daters everywhere.

On her 26th birthday, Pylant's friends set her up with a random guy they met at a bar. She agreed to go out with Justin the following Monday at Truxton Inn, Pylant told NYMag. So far, so good.

The date itself wasn't stellar—Justin had himself a sparkly blue cane ("'you know $23 at CVS and you can call yourself a pimp,’” he told Pylant)—but she had friends at the bar and Justin had said he was meeting friends at 6:15, so she stuck it out.

6:15 rolls around and "friends" turns out to be date #2

It ends up that the guy has scheduled six dates for the evening, and all in one place. He did have an excuse ready for when things began to go awry:

He tried to say he was looking for love and his future wife. These "weren't dates" they were apparently "pre-date conversations"

As talk spread of North Korea's nuclear weapons capabilities on Tuesday, President Trump responded with a warning.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump said at an event at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” The president then repeated that North Korea “will be met with the fire and fury and, frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before” if it continued with this behavior.

Given the high stakes, it was unusually aggressive language from a U.S. president. Stranger still, this language has clear echoes to threats made by North Korea to the United States and its allies.

Remember when a liberal Democrat scornfully referred to Senator Charles Grassley as "a farmer with no law degree"? Back in 2014, before the midterm election, libs were warning voters that an unsophisticated hayseed from Iowa could become the next chairman of the Judiciary Committee should the GOP win the majority in the Senate. And we couldn't have that.

My USMC dad, now 91, landed at Inchon in September of 1950 and spent the last two months of that year up at the Chosin Reservoir, where he won his Bronze Star. I would love for him to see the Korean War finally ended the only way it can be.

Breaking News: President Trump warned North Korea it would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” https://t.co/FB8KSLrUxU

Paula, I think we're on the same side here. The collapse of the family wage, as you note, made two incomes increasingly imperative. but another way to look at what happened in the Seventies (I know, because I got my first real job in 1972) was that the entry of women into the workforce not surprisingly halved familial income. It was one of the first "victories" of feminists, who argue that women could do anything a man could do. That that was manifestly untrue (and vice versa) of course didn't matter: the point had to be made, at whatever reality-distorting price had to be paid. And that was just the economic effect; we can talk about what it did to relations between the sexes at another time, when we really want to start trouble.

In the meantime, suffice it to say that the feminist argument of the 1970s was that a woman could only fully succeed by becoming exactly like a man.

What's a bigger deal? That North Korea appears to have developed the capability to marry a nuclear warhead to one of their missiles? Or that the intelligence assessment reporting it leaked to the Washington Post?

The Washington Post first reported details of the assessment on Tuesday just hours after North Korea threatened 'physical action' in response to punitive sanctions unanimously passed by the United Nations Security Council over the weekend.

"The IC [intelligence community] assesses North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM-class missiles," the assessment states, in an excerpt read to The Washington Post.

CNN has not independently verified the report.

The Washington Post story says that it is not known if North Korea has successfully tested the smaller design. The analysis is from the Defense Intelligence Agency and it is not clear that the assessment is shared across the intelligence community.

CNN has previously reported that US intelligence estimates Pyongyang may have the capacity to deliver a nuclear weapon to the US mainland by early next year and its missile program showed significant progress during two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July.

"Assuming everything is true, including that intelligence assessment both existing and everything being accurate, there are still important unknowns," Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, noting that questions still linger about whether a possible North Korean warhead could survive re-entry from the earth's upper atmosphere.

However, Zeldin also said that reporting of the development "increases the urgency of the time sensitivity" of efforts being taken by the US and its international partners to address North Korea's missile and nuclear programs diplomatically.

I don't doubt that the assessment exists, but I'd love to know how the DIA went from saying that the NoKos were a year away from being able to miniaturize a nuke to fit on one of their missiles to now claiming they've accomplished that goal.

No matter. The only way to stop North Korea from arming themselves with nuclear ICBMs that can hit America is by going to war. Kim is fully aware of this and knows the reluctance of the U.S. and South Korea to initiate a ruinous conflict on the Korean peninsula.

It wouldn't only be a few bombing sorties to take out the nuclear and missile infrastructure. The attack will have to be sustained over several days and necessarily risk retaliation by the North against the South.

Trump is reluctant to start a war, but in the end he may have no choice.

David Letterman, the legendary late-night host whose acerbic comic style influenced a generation of TV personalities, will return to the small screen with a new six-episode series for Netflix, the streaming service announced Tuesday.

The yet-to-be-named series — Letterman's first since leaving the helm of CBS' "Late Show" two years ago — will mix "in-depth conversations with extraordinary people" and "in-the-field segments," Netflix said in a press release.

“I feel excited and lucky to be working on this project for Netflix," Letterman, 70, said in the release. "Here's what I have learned, if you retire to spend more time with your family, check with your family first. Thanks for watching, drive safely.”

The extended cable network universe and streaming channels have provided some interesting creative outlets for comedians who became legends on television but felt they'd accomplished all they could through conventional broadcast venues.

Jerry Seinfeld combined his own love of cars with a passion for talking comedy in the brilliant Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, which is offered on Sony's digital outlet Crackle.

Letterman had gotten very cranky in his final years on CBS, so much so that he was basically unwatchable for anyone who leaned anywhere but left. That was a real shame because funny Dave is something to behold. I still remember certain lines from his days guest-hosting for Carson. The sheer goofiness of his approach to comedy before the politics rotted his sense of humor was something that could be enjoyed by all fans of non-linear humor.

Fingers crossed that this new venture isn't just another liberal celebrity extended tantrum about an election that didn't go his way.